NextGen Climate Action to run ads in D.C. and Wichita

Environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer is again taking aim at the Koch brothers with a new television advertisement set to run this Sunday in Washington, D.C. and Wichita, Kan., the home base of Koch Industries.

The minimalist 15-second ad includes only the sound of crickets chirping against a black night sky. At the end, it says simply, “The Koch brothers’ response to a climate change debate with Tom Steyer.”

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Steyer, a California-based hedge fund investor who has made a political name for himself by opposing the Keystone XL pipeline and calling for action to address global warming, challenged Charles and David Koch last month to a debate on climate change.

While the ad — which was funded by Steyer’s political committee, NextGen Climate Action — implies that the Koch brothers did not respond to Steyer’s request, a spokeswoman for the industrialists declined the invitation in a statement to a Kansas newspaper. The spokeswoman told the Wichita Eagle earlier this month that the Koch brothers are “not experts on climate change” and the debate should take place “among the scientific community.”

NextGen put down $40,000 to run ads in the D.C. market on May 18, Democratic and Republican media trackers said. The group has also reserved $310 worth of airtime – a token sum – in Wichita, where the conservative billionaire Koch brothers’ company is based.

NextGen has regularly run climate- and Keystone-themed ads on D.C. television, especially on Sunday mornings, to target political elites tuning into the weekly political talk shows.

Steyer, like Democrats in Congress, have made the Koch brothers a top target in recent weeks. NextGen’s website currently features a composite photo of Steyer and David Koch with a caption urging visitors to “call out the Kochs.”

A petition on the website states: “Tom Steyer has invited Charles and David Koch to a public debate on climate change. Let’s see if they really know how a democracy works and where their money is going.” The Kochs turned down Steyer’s debate invitation earlier this month.